Days after news of alleged starvation deaths in West Bengal appeared in a section of the media, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday refuted the reports as “fabricated”, saying the deaths either resulted from “age-related ailments” or “excessive liquor consumption”.
Last week, media reports had suggested that seven people of Sabar community, in Jungle Mahal area of Jhargram district, died due to starvation.
In her address to the Assembly, Banerjee said the state government provides foodgrain to “every poor person” in the state.
“The reports that people from Sabar community have died due to starvation is absolutely false and fabricated. No one has died in Bengal due to starvation. We provide free rice and wheat to each and every poor person in this state – from the hills in the north to Jungle Mahal in the south,” she stated.
Sabar community is an ethnic tribe, mainly found in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
“People have died in Jungle Mahal due to excessive consumption of liquor or age-related ailments. While two people have died of illness and old age, others have died due to liver problems caused by excessive consumption of liquor,” she asserted.
Listing the development projects taken up for the welfare of tribal communities, the CM said the state has always been sensitive to the needs of the poor.
Meanwhile, the legislators of opposition CPI(M) and the Congress staged a walkout from the assembly as their demand for a detailed discussion on alleged Sabar community deaths was rejected, following the chief minister’s unilateral statement on the issue.
“The state government is afraid to hold a discussion, adhering to assembly rules, as it will unveil many secrets, giving us an opportunity to question the government. That is why the CM unilaterally gave a statement,” Leader of opposition Abdul Mannan said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said she won’t contest next Lok Sabha poll due to health reasons.
The senior BJP leader told reporters here that she has “made up her mind” not to contest the elections.
“It is the party which decides, but I have made up my mind not to contest the next (Lok Sabha) elections,” the Vidisha MP said.
Swaraj, who has been a member of Parliament for several years, has also served as Delhi’s chief minister from October 13 to December 3, 1998. She was, in fact, Delhi’s first woman chief minister.
Sushma has held several important portfolios at the Centre. She had contested and won from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh in the last two Lok Sabha elections.
Steve Smith and David Warner will not be available for Australia’s upcoming Test series against India after the year-long ball-tampering bans on them were upheld by Cricket Australia on Tuesday after a review.
In recent days, owing in no small measure to the Australian team’s poor on-field performances, there was a clamour for the bans to be reduced, which might have made them available for the four-Test series against India starting December 6 in Adelaide.
It would have allowed the two players, as well as batsman Cameron Bancroft, who was given a nine-month ban, to return to competitive cricket earlier than stipulated.
“The Cricket Australia Board has carefully considered all elements of the ACA submission and has determined that it is not appropriate to make any changes to the sanctions handed down to the three players,” interim chairman Earl Eddings said in a statement.
The Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) even made a submission favouring a reduction in the bans, to which Cricket Australia responded in negative.
The Australian Cricketers’ Association asked for a rethink on the suspension of the trio following the Longstaff review.
The ACA said that the review provided new and compelling evidence that CA – and not just the players involved – contributed to the atmosphere that prompted the events of the Cape Town Test in March.
With India set to play Australia in a long series, including four-Tests and considering the hosts’ recent run of losses, there were prompt calls to bring back Smith and Warner before the contests against the visitors. The series gets underway with the first T20 International here on Wednesday.
Smith and Warner are eight months into their one-year bans, while Bancroft will be eligible to return in December.
The trio were banned for their role in the ball tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket in March.
“This Is Us” star Mandy Moore has tied the knot with folk-rock star Taylor Goldsmith.
The actor shared the news on Instagram where she posted a black and white picture of herself and Goldsmith holding hands with a caption of the date of the ceremony, “11-18-18”.
According to E! News, the wedding took place in front of family and close friends on Sunday. It was described as “very boho” with “rugs on the floor surrounding the altar” and feathery flower arrangements.
A source told the outlet that the ceremony was “an intimate backyard wedding at Mandy’s home that started just after sundown”.
Actors Milo Ventimiglia, Chrissy Metz, and Sterling K Brown, Moore’s co-stars from “This Is Us”, were in attendance.
Moore, 34, and Goldsmith, 32, started dating in 2015 and were engaged in September 2017.
She was previously married to singer-songwriter Ryan Adams from 2009 to 2016.
Actor Ezra Miller has revealed that the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” cast was not consulted when Johnny Depp was roped in for the film.
Depp’s casting as the villain, Gellert Grindelwald, in the franchise had led to a huge uproar as he was accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife Amber Heard, an allegation the actor has denied.
In an interview with Playboy, Miller, who plays the role of Credence Barebones in the franchise, was asked whether they were aware that Depp has been cast in the series.
“No, none of us were consulted. None of us knew,” he replied.
The 26-year-old actor then gave a cryptic answer as to how he felt working with Depp.
“Look, I bring forth my work to this job, and I do the best that I can. I would say that literally every single aspect of my reality, inclusive of a lot of things that are not fine with me, are fine with me. It’s amazing how far the banner of all good can extend,” Miller said.
Author JK Rowling and director David Yates have both defended Depp’s casting in the series, whose latest installment “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” released worldwide on November 16.
Rapper Snoop Dogg, whose career spans three decades, has been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He received the 2,651st star outside the El Capitan theater on Monday. During his Walk of Fame ceremony, Snoop Dogg, real name Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, couldn’t resist paying tribute to himself.
“I want to thank me for believing in me. I want to thank me for doing all this hard work. I want to thank me for having no days off. I want to thank me for never quitting,” said the 47-year-old, as reported by Entertainment Weekly.
He added, “I want to thank me for always being a giver, and trying to give more than I receive. I want to thank me for trying to do more right than wrong; I want to thank me for being me at all times.”
Dogg was joined at the ceremony by fellow stars of hip-hop including Dr. Dre, Pharrell Williams and Warren G.
The legendary rapper’s chart-topping hits include ‘Gin and Juice,’ ‘Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang,’ ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot,’ ‘Sensual Seduction,’ among others.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an internationally-recognised Hollywood icon. The five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles honour personalities from music, film, and TV for achievement in the entertainment industry. The first stars were unveiled in 1958 before the first official ones were laid on the Walk of Fame in 1960 and 1961.
Netflix on Tuesday announced that actors Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Abhishek Bachchan, among others, will be lending their voices for the Hindi version of Andy Serkis’ fantasy adventure film “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle”.
The Hindi voice cast also includes Madhuri Dixit and Jackie Shroff, the streaming giant said in a statement.
Abhishek will voice Bagheera, the Black Panther who is a friend, protector, and mentor to the “man-cub” Mowgli. In the English version, Oscar winner Christian Bale has voiced the character.
Kapoor is taking on the role of beloved bear Baloo, played by Serkis himself in the film, while Shroff will voice the villainous Bengal tiger, Shere Khan, which was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the English version.
Madhuri and Kareena will provide the voice work for python Kaa and female wolf Nisha. Actors Cate Blanchett and Naomie Harris did the voice work for the two characters in the English version.
The streaming giant also announced that actor Freida Pinto, who plays Mowgli’s adoptive mother Messua, will also do the voice work in Hindi.
The India-set film will have its world premiere on November 25 in Mumbai with its lead cast — Serkis, Bale, Pinto, and newcomer Rohan Chand — in attendance.
The trailer of “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle” was launched at Netflix’s See What’s Next: Asia event held in Singapore earlier this week.
New parents Neha Dhupia and Angad Bedi have named their baby girl Mehr Dhupia Bedi.
Mommy Neha took to Instagram to introduce the little one to the world. She did so by posting an adorable picture of her shoes, which read “Hello World.” The ‘Tumhari Sulu’ actor captioned the photo as, “Mehr Dhupia Bedi says hello to the world”
The 38-year-old gave birth to the baby on Sunday at Women’s Hospital, located in Mumbai’s Khar area. Until recently, she was busy with the third season of her talk show, ‘No Filter Neha’.
The couple had revealed the news of the pregnancy in August. The post by Neha read, “Here’s to new beginnings #3ofUs #satnamwaheguru”.
Angad and Neha got married in a quiet gurudwara ceremony in Delhi earlier this year and made the announcement on social media.
“Marrying your best friend is one of the greatest feelings in the world, and we are extremely fortunate to have found love in each other. It has been a beautiful journey knowing each other and after formalizing the wedding earlier this year, today, we exchanged our vows in a beautifully simple, private and intimate Anand Karaj ceremony in Delhi,” read the statement.
Akshay Kumar on Tuesday revealed that the filming of the fourth installment of ‘Housefull’ has been completed.
The ‘Gold’ star took to social media to share an interesting picture of the entire cast, which came together to pose for a happy pic. ‘Housefull 4’ stars an ensemble cast of Akshay, Kriti Sanon, Riteish Deshmukh, Kriti Kharbanda, Bobby Deol, Pooja Hegde amongst others. Chunky Panday, Johnny Lever, Boman Irani, and Rana Daggubati are also a part of the flick.
“While we have called it a ‘wrap’ for #Housefull4, the fun never ends..See you all in 2019!” posted the 51-year-old.
Sajid Nadiadwala’s film has been shot in London, Rajasthan, and Mumbai. Revolving around the theme of reincarnation, the film follows a non-linear narrative and all the flashback sequences have been shot in Rajasthan. A lavishly mounted set was built in Mumbai for the finale.
The film, which is scheduled to hit the big screens in 2019, gathered headlines after actor Nana Patekar and filmmaker Sajid Khan were accused of sexual harassment during the ongoing #MeToo movement in India.
After the allegations surfaced, Patekar was replaced by ‘Baahubali’ fame Rana Daggubati whereas ‘Housefull 3’ director Farhad Samji took over the reins of ‘Housefull 4.
Believe it or not, 29 countries around the world offer free public transport to their citizens in some cities. The list includes both, developed as well as developing nations. Just like other developing countries, why shouldn’t the Indian government consider implementing the free city bus service scheme on a trial basis in a few cities?
In the year 2014, Estonia, a small country located in North Eastern Europe became the first nation to introduce free public transport for its citizens living in the national capital city, Tallinn. Since May this year, Estonia offers the same service throughout the country.
Currently, cities in Wales, Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, Sweden, Spain, Slovenia, Scotland, Russia, Norway, Malaysia, Italy, Iceland, Greece, France, Finland, England, Denmark, Czech Republic, China, Canada, Bulgaria, the United States, Brazil, Belgium, and Australia offer free public transport. Most of these countries provide the same to cut air pollution and reduce traffic congestion.
“What are the possible benefits of offering free city bus service?”
Reducing travel costs, lower emissions, decreasing traffic and travel time, pleasant air, and reduced expenditure on healthcare are the upsides that can be achieved if public transport is offered free of charge. Free bus service also increases the economic activities in the city. Studies conducted in the nations mentioned above have pointed out that people travel more often to visit their favorite cinema hall, restaurants, as well as bars that are located far away from their residence if there’s no traveling cost involved. It also takes care of the car parking issue faced by many cities. People show the willingness to walk even for fifteen minutes to reach the nearest bus stop.
“How can the govt recover their lost revenue?”
The nations that offer high-class public transport free of cost to its citizens recover their expenditure from multiple revenue streams. Levying additional taxes on high-end cars, using the national environment funds, charging additional transport cess on annual property taxes, etc. are some of the measures adopted by the countries mentioned above.
In India, Shiv Sena happens to be the first political party that had urged the authorities to implement a similar initiative in Pune. During the 2017 civic polls in Pune, the party had made its plan public as a part of their election manifesto.
“The calculation is simple. On an average, every family has two to three bikes, and members spend a total of around Rs 9,000 on petrol every month. The overall annual cost of fuel for such family is more than one lakh eight thousand rupees. Plus, they also need to shell out money for maintenance of their vehicles. The air pollution and road-accidental deaths in cities like Pune are already a cause of concern. So, we proposed a plan to improve public transport and make it free for citizens. To recover the lost revenue, we suggested that an additional pollution cess of Rs 2,000 per annum can be added to the property tax that citizens are paying. Plus, commercial exploitation of public transport body PMPML’s properties, as well as ads on buses and bus-stops, can help in fetching more money than the current levels. The municipal corporation can help by allotting money to the public transport body by tapping environmental funds intended to be spent on environmental causes. Such an initiative would motivate people to use public bus service,” said Shiv Sena Pune spokesperson Sham Deshpande while sharing details about their proposed scheme.
“Noteworthy initiatives in India”
Some tier 1 and tier 2 cities in India run a free bus pass scheme for school students, disabled persons, war widows, sportspersons, and journalists who have accreditation. The municipal corporations allot funds to their public transport bodies in their annual budgets for these passes. Schemes have proved extremely useful for school and college students.
The state of Maharashtra has some excellent schemes in place when it comes to the State Transport (ST). Immediately after taking over as the state’s minister for Transport, Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Raote had promised the citizens that he would come up with schemes to offer free bus passes to the poor section of the society. During the last four years, Raote has introduced free ST bus passes for selected war widows, girls up to class 12 in rural areas, free passes for boys studying in 12th standard, as well as ITI course students across the state. The minister believes that offering free bus passes to school and college going girls would help in promoting girl-education in rural areas.
“Except for Bangalore, all Indian cities have an inadequate number of buses”
Most parts of India do not have a good metro/suburban rail network. So, administrators rely on their bus transport networks. Studies suggest that people from a financially weaker section of the society as well as a small percentage of persons who do not own a vehicle opt for public transport buses. In spite of this, just around one percent of the total number of vehicles sold in India happens to be buses.
Urban planning specialists suggest that the ratio of buses and the population needs to be at least 400 buses for 10 lakh people. However, most of the Indian cities (except for the metropolises) have less than 140 buses in place for 10 lakh citizens.
In cities like Pune, people travel like stuffed animals in these buses. The number of passengers sitting in the vehicles is often beyond the RTO’s permissible limits. Bus stops lack cleanliness as there is no dedicated staff for even sweeping these areas on a daily basis. Vehicles do not ply as per their timetable and often break-down. Fares are among the highest, compared to other countries. Traveling in such buses is considered as something humiliating and troublesome.
In spite of an inadequate number of buses, most of the cities have cut back their plans to increase the number of vehicles. Modi Government has stopped the flow of funds offered to various towns for buying new buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The Smart Cities Mission and AMRUT mission do not provide a dedicated budget for buying buses. Thus, before motivating citizens to use public transport, the state, central, as well as municipal corporations need to increase bus fleets.
“Political will is necessary”
“It would prove to be a great, path-breaking initiative. But the probability of success would increase if the center, state, and local bodies do it together, just like in the JNNURM Bus Funding Scheme run by the UPA Government. The central government can purchase the buses, while the state government, local bodies would take care of the bus maintenance, fuel, and salaries of the employees. Currently, besides the MSRTC’s ST (State Transport), there are around eight to ten public transport bodies that operate under various municipal corporations in Maharashtra. All these transport bodies can be brought together under the transport ministry to make sure that every city has a sufficient number of buses. A separate IAS officer can be appointed to manage the same,” said MNS’s Secretary Irfan Shaikh who has worked as a member of Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation’s Transport Committee.
According to Shaikh, most of the public transport bodies in Maharashtra are incurring losses anyway. A new expenditure financing pattern, involving the use of cess, tax money instead of selling tickets to passengers might prove to be a revolutionary step. They can surely start such a scheme in certain cities like Delhi on an experimental basis.
Lobbying is not legal in India. However, most of the MLAs or MPs would agree that fuel pump owners, automobile companies, and even cab aggregators have lobbyists working for them. Their influence on bureaucrats and politicians is strong. Perhaps, this is the reason public transportation system remains poor in most parts of the country. Even a proposal for a free city bus service scheme would surely make them run for their money.
Nitten Gokhaley
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
